By Kent Gray
Aditi Ashok gave the Abu Dhabi galleries a glimpse of her rare talent when she book-ended a T-46 finish at the inaugural Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open last November with a pair of 69s.

What the Saadiyat Beach faithful probably didn’t see coming next was back-to-back victories, by a shot in front of her home fans at the Hero Women’s Indian Open and then by three at the Qatar Ladies Open to sew up Rookie-of-the-Year honours and second spot in the overall order-of-merit.

Fast-forward 12 months and nobody will be surprised if Ashok goes on to collect a third Ladies European Tour title at Saadiyat on Saturday. The girl from Bangalore added a 68 Friday to her earlier loops of 67-66 to move to -15 and establish a two-shot buffer over Cheyenne Woods.

England’s Ellie Givens fired a flawless eight-under 64 to soar up to a share of third place with Lee-Anne Pace after the South African, who led through the first 36 holes, went backwards with an even par 72.

Ashok plays golf beyond her years but even the seemingly nerveless teen will be very aware of the name nearest to her on the leaderboard. Being stalked by Cheyenne Woods isn’t quite the same as when uncle Tiger is on the prowl, but its scary enough.

“It’s good that I have a two-stroke lead,” Ashok told Ladies European Tour. “But there are several players within two or three shots and a low round is very possible on this course so I’ll need to play well tomorrow.”

She’ll be hoping for more consistency than Friday when she mixed seven birdies with three bogeys.

“I was hitting it well on the range and I had a feeling that I could have a few birdie chances. I was five-under on the front nine but there were a couple of mistakes on the back which could have been avoided. Four-under is still good.”

A day after her first pro hole-in-one, Woods played shots like this en-route to five birdies:

This closing birdie was class too and edged the 27-year-old American closer to a second LET title after her pro breakthrough at the Volvik RACV Ladies Masters in Australia in 2014.

“I had a pretty solid round altogether, played well from start to finish and gave myself lots of birdie chances, as I just wanted to be up there with the leaders. I am ready for tomorrow and excited for what it will bring”.

Cheyenne Woods.

Pace, a nine-time winner on the LET, was left “very frustrated” but is still only three back on a course that is giving up plenty of birdies.

“I didn’t think I played that badly but I left myself in some bad positions so decision-making wasn’t the best, especially hitting over the green on 18 and dropping one there,” the 36-year-old said after her 72.

“It wasn’t ideal but a quick start tomorrow and I could get there. I had a lot of downhill putts and short-sided myself. They were not easy putts to make.”